With a Day's Reflection, I see Two Possible Futures for the P ay To Post SDMB

In My Humble Opinion
1

I filled out my survey and indicated I would be willing to pay. I drop $20-$50 on meaningless crap all the time, so to pay that for something I enjoy as much as the SDMB is a no-brainer to me.

I also work for myself, and I enjoy it when a company or person I like and respect makes a profit. So I’m hoping it works out for them AND for us.

However, when I filled out the form, I was making a decision on whether or not I would pay to keep what I have. The bottom line is, if it goes to a subscription service, there is no way the SDMB will be the same.

I know that the moon hoax lunatics, the screwy treasure hunters, those fixated on circumcision and even the fundamentalists and creationists drive many of us here crazy, but they are part of the whole SDMB experience. I am truly going to miss logging on and finding out what new strange internet creature crawled onto the board while I was sleeping. Secret agents and certifiable lunatics add just the right amount of color to this place, IMHO.

So as I thought about it, I realized there are two possible outcomes of the decision to go to a pay subscription service. (I’m sure there are thousands of possibilites, but it’s my OP and I’m only going to acknowledge 2 right now:))
[1] The board dries up and dies a slow and painful death.

This is a very real possibility. We all had a great ride, but so did the stock market, and now it’s time to pay the piper. We got to live through the wild and loose early days of the net, and it looks like things are about to change.

New posters add new blood. They repost old topics and we get to rehash them with new people. Occasionaly we even learn something new. Without new transitory blood, the post frequencey will slow down and the board will be less attractive to those of us who love it. When next year rolls around, I could see another huge drop in membership as many of us fail to renew.

[2] The board grows up and the quality increases.

If the Reader takes the subscription service seriously, and attempts to turn a profit instead of merely breaking even, then they could make the board better then it is now. If they see a possiblity of making money, then maybe they could actually advertise on other sites. If they raised the quality of the board to where people wanted to come and be a part of a “premiere” board, then they could grow their base of subscribers to where we did get newbies coming in on a frequent basis.

Either way, I’m in it for the first year. It is worth it to me to stick around and be part of this experiment. I’m hoping for the best and I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is.

And just to drag out this OP a little more, here are some of my thoughts on keeping the board alive once we go to PTP:
[a] Keep General Questions open as a free section open to the public. You just have to offer SOMETHING for free, this is the internet after all.

[aa] Trial offers. Offer easy trial offers. In the beginning, make it easy to cheat if people want to cheat. See what you can do with the people who pay straight up and the people who fall in love with the board and want to support it. Don’t get all militaristic on making sure nobody double dips. See what happens before you start requiring a credit card # up front.

[c] Have a free month or two every year where it goes back to the old way where people can stroll on in and register for free. Maybe every December and June.

[d] I have no idea how you would choose the recipients, but I would be willing to sponsor a random poster. Maybe you could light up people’s names in different colors to show what kind of membership they paid for. I’m not trying to single out people who got in for free, but I’m looking for a way to recognize those who were willing to sponsor hardship cases.

[e] Add a spell-check. Please.
[f] Add a porn section to the site:)

2

We need a warez section, too.

I’d be willing to upload my Windows 3.1.

Hey, it’s got DOS.

3

I really think that leaving General Questions free is a great idea. The whole theme of GQ needs ig’nant folk (as I was, and still am) coming in and asking goofy questions so’s we kin git lairned. The other forums, fun though they may be, are only improved by free participation. I sincerely doubt that a pay service will really kill them (just wound them), but I feel certain that the mission and point of GQ will suffer badly or die altogether in the same circumstances.

4

If that was the case, wouldn’t it be funny if a n00b started a thread in GQ and a mod moved the thread to, let’s say, IMHO or GD?

Now THAT’s comedy!

5

You’ve left out another possibility, Freedom, the one I think is most likely:

[3] The board continues, as a pale shadow of its former self. It becomes a low-population, edge-of-becoming-a-ghost-town kind of place. And those who paid to stay wish they hadn’t, because the product they paid for isn’t what it used to be.

I’m still not sure what the admins will do when the trolls have paid to be here…

6

I have a fear here. If it is a pay service, controlling trolls etc, may become much harder.

If Wildest Bill paid for his privilege of posting here would he be gone yet?

7

Simple. Charge a fee divisible by 12. If banned, your yearly fee is returned, minus the pro-rated months you “used.” ie, charge $24, Wildest Bill banned in June, he gets $12 back.

8

I consider that the same as option #1.
**
Re: Trolls**
I don’t see trolls as a problem. Just make it crystal clear in the user agreement that if you get booted, then you get nothing in return.

If you act up in the movies, they boot your ass out without refunding your money. If you go to Great Adventure and act like a jerk, then you will find yourself in the parking lot and out $40.

9

There’s a vast gulf between, say, throwing popcorn in the movies and thus getting booted, and losing your paid subscription because you said some unpopular things. The criteria for the second are entirely subjective. One man’s jerk is another man’s prophet.

10

First Salon (Table Talk), then several The Sims sites, now this place? It wouldn’t be so bad if they all charged a dollar or so a month and went for volume. Instead they decide to overcharge the fanatics ($5-10 a month) and get rid of the rest of us.

To me, it just doesn’t make sense to pay for a place where the customers are providing most of the content. Especially if charging gets rid of 90% of those customers.

I still miss Table Talk :frowning: Oh well, at least there are still all the ezboards, tons of ads, but at least posting is free.